07.2.2008 | 4:38 pm | gambling
The European Football Championships (Euro 2008) may now be done and dusted, with Spain winning the day, but there was a surprising number of bets from countries outside Europe, or without teams competing.
In Thailand, during the tournament a total of $15.2 dollars was placed as bets on football gambling and this has only just become apparent. A relatively small amount of the cash was recovered by Thai Police but 1,098 bookmakers and gamblers were arrested. Betting on football games is illegal in Thailand but there was has been an increase in online betting and also with people receiving “tip-offs”.
There has been seen to be an increase in schoolchildren and young adults betting on football especially on major tournaments such as the World Cup and European Championships, with some children running up about $3000 in debt. There was even a case of a gambling operator turning up at a school to demand money from a schoolboy.
Arrests were also made in China for football gambling with sites found for online betting. Police swooped on two gambling dens and arrested 4 people, recovering $960,000. Although football gambling is illegal in both China and Thailand, it did not deter people from gambling.
In the UK, even though there were no home teams competing in the championship, it still attracted a lot of interest with punters £2million up after the opening round . Gamblers have not only bet on the outcome of the games, but total goals scored, top scorer and the total number of yellow cards – which was 144.
Whether or not the favourites won the Championship, it was a success for gamblers in all countries .
07.1.2008 | 5:31 pm | casinos
A top casino in Las Vegas filed a $50,000 lawsuit for an unpaid convention bill for 2007 All-Star Week. The NBA were implicated in the lawsuit but this was found to be a mistake and that an administrative error had been made. The lawsuit should only have been filed against Alonzo Mourning Charities Inc and not against NBA Entertainment and NBA Properties.
On 15 February 2007, there was a silent auction, a charity billiards tournament and an online promotional video at the Wynn Las Vegas Casino.
It is not the first time that the particular casino has filed a lawsuit, as a $400,000 gambling debt was retrieved from a retired basketball star Charles Barkley, together with $40,000 to pay for District Attorney fees.
There have been other cases where casinos themselves have been sued for allowing people to gamble. Two Las Vegas Casinos – the Las Vegas Hilton and the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino were sued by Stephen Roel, a long-term customer with a credit limit of $50,000. One weekend, Roel drank heavily and lost $117,000 at the Hilton. The bosses there gave him an additional $840,000 in credit. In the same weekend Roel also had a credit extension of $100,000 at the Mandalay Bay and continued to give him credit, knowing that he was not in a fit state to gamble. In the lawsuit, Stephen Roel was not only wanting the debts that he had accumulated to be recovered, but also compensation and punitive damages.
The particular case raises an interesting question on who is responsible for gambling debts – should it be the gambler or does the casino have some responsibility not to accept bets from people not in a fit state to gamble?
06.27.2008 | 10:59 am | Poker
While to many people poker is a game, to others it can be the centre of their lives, their profession and their only form of income. Check out some of the great poker quotes below :-
“The guy who invented poker was bright, but the guy who invented the chip was a genius.”
This about sums up the game of poker, the person who plays the chips can win or lose, but the person who created the chips is a winner forever. Can you imagine how much money they will have grossed over the years?
“If, after the first twenty minutes, you don’t know who the sucker at the table is, it’s you.”
If you are not able to get a grasp of those playing against you then you will struggle to beat them. Try and work out what makes players tick, the ones who rush their hands when they are excited and those prepared to sit out the first few hands to work out the competition.
“I must complain the cards are ill shuffled till I have a good hand.”
This is a saying which must have applied to every single poker player in the world at one time or another. If the cards are not falling for you then the shuffle must have been poor – “A bad workman always blames his tools.”
“How long does it take to learn poker, Dad?”
“All your life, son.”
The moment that you think you know everything about poker is likely the time you will be nearing your biggest loss of all time. Never stop learning because poker is a skill which can always be bettered.
These are just some of the more interesting poker quotes that we have picked up over the years, many of which will strike a chord with poker players around the world.
06.26.2008 | 10:43 am | Poker
For those reading this blog, have you ever sat back and wondered why and how you played your last poker hand? Did you go for the big win? Did you take it slowly? Did you bottle it? Or was the hand you were dealt not the hand you were hoping for?
There are many ways, strategies and fundamentals to poker and understanding even the basics will see you well positioned for the future. Let us take a look at the fundamentals to poker and what exactly you are trying to do :-
Fundamentals of Poker
Cut Your Losses
If a hand is not working for you, don’t go out on a limb in the hope that you are bailed out by the next card. There will be times when you might fold before you would have received a couple of well timed cards, but if your hand is not very good at the start then the odds are stacked against you - ”A bet saved is a bet earned”
Run Your Good Hands
If you have a good hand then don’t be worried about running it as far as you can, after all this is the real reason why you are playing poker, to make use of the good hands when they appear – “A poker player without bottle is like a luxury car with no fuel – it will never get anywhere”
Monitor The Cards Already Dealt
When we say monitor the cards we don’t mean count them, more a case of if three aces have been dealt and you are waiting for one, the chances of you getting that ace may be slim. If you are hanging on for a card which is very unlikely to be dealt to you then you are playing a very risky game – “Do not take your eye off the ball”
These are just some of the more basic fundamentals of poker and create a good base for any player, but the key is to stay level headed even when you are on the verge of a good win.
06.20.2008 | 5:46 am | Poker, Poker Stars
The last few years have seen the mergence of a new style of gambling known as the betting exchanges which allow customers to bet directly against each other without a middle man taking a turn. As this market has developed they have taken away great numbers of customers from the traditional bookmakers such as Ladbrokes and introduced a whole new era to the gambling market. While gambling on the exchanges has never been more popular it seems as though this in itself is not enough, they want the poker market as well!
As you might expect it is Betfair who have been the more aggressive in the sector as they attack the poker markets. They are in the process of putting together a great team of sponsored poker players to carry the Betfair message to the poker arena and bring in more and more customers. Interestingly they have decided to go for the younger up and coming players in the game, as oppose to the more expensive established players, taking a gamble on the future. But will it work?
Betfair are spreading themselves in such a way as to almost guarantee that one of their poker team is sure to hit the big time. Interestingly they have recently signed up a number of up and coming young ladies to the team, adding glamour and hoping to grab some of the lucrative woman’s poker custom. As we have covered on this blog on a number of occasions, woman’s poker is the fastest growing sector of the poker market at present and one which still has much life left in it. So what next?
How many players Betfair will signup remains to be seen but each and every up and coming younger player seems to be on the company’s radar. The added marketing power of the poker team and the fact the company name is out in the poker industry bodes very well for the future.
06.19.2008 | 5:47 am | Poker Stars
If you have an interest in online poker there is every chance that you will have come across Daniel Negreanu, the Canadian poker star with a liking for WSOP. In fact Daniel Negreanu has a total of four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour championship titles under his belt. But what do you know about him? What makes him tick and where did he come from?
Daniel Negreanu was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 26th July 1974 to parents who had escaped the vicious communist regime of Romania in 1967, making Canada their new home. While the USA had been their initial target they actually plumped for Canada and shortly afterwards expanded their family with the arrival of Daniel Negreanu and his older brother.
While initially Daniel Negreanu had been looking at a career in comedy or acting, he decided to give poker a try at the ripe old age of 15, unaware that only a few years later he would be earning more money that he or his family could ever have imagined. It was 1997 that Daniel Negreanu first came to attention of the wider poker community bagging two events at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods and earning himself $133,600 in the process. However, this was only the start!
Negreanu continued to progress and 1998 saw him become the youngest WSOP bracelet winner at the time, a record he held until 2004. He then went on to claim two World Poker Tour events and was named World Series of Poker player of the year in 2004, and World Poker Tour player of the year in 2005.
While till only 33 years of age, Daniel Negreanu has done so much in his short poker career and is still competing at the highest tables. He will go down as one of the poker playing greats, but there are many that believe the best is still to come from the Canadian superstar!
06.18.2008 | 6:01 am | Poker Stars
The last few years has seen a number of changes in the poker industry, new players, new tournaments and a massive increase in the number of online players, but tournaments are still the bread and butter of the poker world, the main attractions. One name which many people are putting forward as a major superstar of the future is Vanessa Rousso, the 25 year old professional poker player who has seen her winnings top the $1 million mark. But what do you know about Vanessa Rousso?
Born on 5th February 1983, Vanessa Rousso has dual citizenship with the USA and France through her parentage. However much of her life has been spent in the USA where she attended the University of Miami studying for her law degree. Aside from her aspirations in the field of law she has qualifications in economics and politics, so why did she choose to go down the path to poker?
Vanessa Rousso has always been a poker player with rumours that she began to play the game as young as 5! Since taking a summer break from her studies to become a professional poker player her career has gone from strength to strength. She has an array of in the money finishes but she has also bagged some major crowns in her short career, taking home the Borgata Open honour in 2006 and winning $285,450 into the bargain.
However, what has caught the eye of many is her history in the World Series of Poker events where she finished seventh and eighth in two separate WSOP 2006 events. There are many experts tipping her to bag the big one in the future and really put woman’s poker on the map. Quite where she gets her skills from is anyone’s guess, but then again she is engaged to the master, Chad Brown!
06.17.2008 | 6:20 am | Poker, casinos, gambling
While WSOP is all over the gambling press at the moment it is not a new event having been around since 1968 when poker was played in smoke field rooms with no woman allowed. So how has the tournament evolved over the years and how much is the brand name really worth?
We have touched on the history of WSOP on a number of occasions from the early tournaments in the 1960s to the glitz and glam of WSOP 2008, but why is it so popular?
Even though it would be foolish to think that money was not one of the main attractions of the WSOP events, to many poker players this is just the icing on the cake. In 2006 the largest main event pot was $12 million, which was taken home by Jamie Gold, but this just opened the door to more riches and exposure. If you are a main event winner at the WSOP your sponsorship value will suddenly explode over night, your website will receive literally millions of hits and quite often you will be invited to more games than you could ever hope to play!
Just having a WSOP champion in attendance can often move a tournament to a different level on the advertising front and attract money and players from far and wide. However, perhaps one of the shrewdest buys was the acquisition of the Benny Binion’s Horseshoe casino by Harrah’s Entertainment back in 2004 – the creator of the WSOP.
Obviously aware of the potential value of the WSOP brand they quickly restructured the venture, sold off the assets of Binion’s group and retained the rights to WSOP and Horseshoe. Switching the WSOP to a Harrah’s casino was a wise move, moving the company and the brand name onto a different level. There are many differing opinions as to the value of the WSOP brand but the fact that it still remains a central asset of the group shows how much it is appreciated by the company and the poker playing community alike.
06.16.2008 | 10:21 am | News, casinos
The casino industry is littered with attempted frauds, con artists and crooks who continue to try and beat the system even to this day. But few of the groups today can have made quite the same impact as the so called Eudaemons who attempted to get to the very heart of the roulette industry using a specially made ‘shoe computer’. This early age system saw the movement defraud casinos out of thousands of dollars during the 1970s.
So who were the Eudaemons and what was their trick?
The Eudaemons was created by graduate physics students J Doyne Farmer and Norman Packard from the University of California Santa Cruz. They got together in the 1970s and formulated a way of controlling the spin of the roulette wheel using a complex computer device which was hidden in two different shoes.
One of the shoes had a special heel fitted which allowed the wearer to place pressure on the heel to activate a computer which would tamper with the spin of the roulette wheel. The system was then able to predict what slot the ball would fall into and pass the prediction to the actual player, situated at the table with a computer receiver in their shoe.
However, as time progressed a number of flaws appeared with electric shocks and burns on the soles of feet common occurrences, until finally the scam was rumbled by the authorities. The payback had been in the region of 44c for every dollar, something which would be impossible in open play.
The casinos of today are very different and have the latest high-tec surveillance equipment fitted to intercept radio waves, communications and any other kind of scam you could imagine. However, where there is a will there is a way and the fraudsters are always on the look out for new methods in this constant battle of wits.
06.13.2008 | 10:57 am | News, casinos
The Isle Casino will play host to a comedy night at the Coventry City Football Club Ricoh arena this month. The casino has added a comedy club to the venue in order to attract a new and varied range of customers to the development. But do comedy and casinos really work together?
While gambling and comedy would not normally be two pastimes which you would place together, there is a feeling that the casino developments of today and the future are set to mimic those found in early stage Las Vegas. That is not to say that the UK market is anywhere near the level of its US counterpart, but many believe that this is the direction in which the UK needs to move.
More and more people in the UK and across the world are treating a visit to the casino as a night out, rather than just a chance to gamble. True, gambling still plays a major part in the whole evening it is not as ‘vital’ as it once was with modern day casinos seeing more and more couples and groups in attendance. The boost has also been assisted by the change in UK gambling laws and the relative ease with which new members can join their local casino.
Casinos were once very much part of the darker side of entertainment, unable to advertise and often situated away from the gaze of the general public. However, the last few years has seen a substantial change in the sector and a move towards the mainstream entertainment sector. Whether casino owners are looking to use comedy and entertainment to crack the market and attract a new group of customers or believe they can make money from the two activities remains to be seen.
Whatever happens, it seems as though the consumer will be the ultimate winner!
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